A driver was paid more than £5,000 in compensation by Kirklees Council after suffering neck and shoulder injuries after hitting a pothole.

The payment of £5,538 was the largest sum paid out by the council in the last four years, a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Examiner has revealed.

Kirklees said the compensation was paid “when a vehicle hit a pothole and caused damage to the suspension and the driver suffered whiplash-type injuries to the neck and shoulder.”

The amount paid out in the last four years totalled £32,943 which followed 55 successful claims, with another 132 claims yet to be decided.

Just over 400 claims for compensation were rejected out of a total of 589 over the four-year period.

For the period 2017-18, just £2,125 has been paid out to date, although 127 claims have still to be decided.

The council was also asked to provide information about the road with the largest number of compensation payments. The authority said it did not hold this information.

Earlier this month the council said it had well over 4,000 potholes that urgently need fixing but was having trouble finding some of them.

Officials wrote to all the councillors urging them to make sure people who complain to them about potholes give an exact location as to where they are.

Last month the council said it had repaired 21,415 potholes between April 1 2017 and March 13 this year.

A spokesman said extra resources had been allocated to clear a backlog of repairs.